Dixon Fastest in Mid-Ohio Final Practice

Chip Ganassi Racing‘s Scott Dixon went fastest in the brief 30-minute post-qualifying practice session ahead of the Honda Indy 200. Dixon, who qualified fifth for tomorrow’s race, showed that he’s got the pace to compete tomorrow with a lap time of 1:08.025 on the red-walled alternate tyre.

Colton Herta was the model of consistency, matching his second place qualifying effort with a second place finish in final practice. Across all three sessions today, Herta has not finished outside of the top three in any of them, showing good pace in the increasing temperatures.

Romain Grosjean recovered from a less than ideal qualifying to put together a strong lap and finish third, the highest up the scoring sheets he’s been all weekend. Grosjean was raced hard by fellow ex-Formula 1 driver Marcus Ericsson late in the session and had choice words for the Swede over the radio after he pushed him off track in turn five, but the team said they will show him in the race tomorrow. Ericsson finished the session in eighth place.

Another ex-F1 driver found themselves fourth fastest, Carlin‘s Max Chilton. Chilton shot to the top of the charts late in the session, and finished the day with a top result for the small, single-car operation.

James Hinchcliffe added to his top-ten qualifying effort with a fifth place finish in final practice, the last of the Andretti Autosport cars in the top ten. Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay finished the session in eighteenth and thirteenth respectively.

Championship leader Alex Palou finished the session sixth after just missing out on Q3 earlier in the afternoon while tomorrow’s polesitter Josef Newgarden finished in seventh. Newgarden’s Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin ended the day in ninth place, another practice top ten this weekend for the rookie from New Zealand.

Rounding out the top ten was Ed Jones of Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan, his best finish in a session this weekend.

Rinus Veekay and Felix Rosenqvist, who are both returning from injury this weekend, finished the session in nineteenth and twenty-second respectively. Ryan Norman, making his IndyCar debut with Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing, finished the session in twenty-first.

WIth no morning warm-up tomorrow, the next time the cars will be on track is for the Honda Indy 200 at 1200 EST / 1700 BST.

Honda Indy 200 Final Practice Results

RANK	CAR NO.	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	TIME
1	9	Scott Dixon	NZL	Chip Ganassi Racing	01:08.025
2	26	Colton Herta	USA	Andretti Autosport	01:08.074
3	51	Romain Grosjean (R)	FRA	Dale Coyne Racing w/ Rick Ware Racing	01:08.149
4	59	Max Chilton	GBR	Carlin	01:08.164
5	29	James Hinchcliffe	CAN	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport	01:08.242
6	10	Alex Palou	ESP	Chip Ganassi Racing	01:08.324
7	2	Josef Newgarden	USA	Team Penske	01:08.328
8	8	Marcus Ericsson	SWE	Chip Ganassi Racing	01:08.431
9	3	Scott McLaughlin (R)	NZL	Team Penske	01:08.443
10	18	Ed Jones	UAE	Dale Coyne Racing w/ Vasser-Sullivan	01:08.547
11	5	Pato O’Ward	MEX	Arrow McLaren SP	01:08.567
12	60	Jack Harvey	GBR	Meyer Shank Racing	01:08.649
13	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	USA	Andretti Autosport	01:08.806
14	30	Takuma Sato	JPN	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	01:08.827
15	14	Sebastien Bourdais	FRA	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	01:08.966
16	22	Simon Pagenaud	FRA	Team Penske	01:08.973
17	15	Graham Rahal	USA	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	01:09.019
18	27	Alexander Rossi	USA	Andretti Autosport	01:09.145
19	21	Rinus VeeKay	NED	Ed Carpenter Racing	01:09.153
20	12	Will Power	AUS	Team Penske	01:09.216
21	52	Ryan Norman (R)	USA	Dale Coyne Racing w/ Rick Ware Racing	01:09.291
22	7	Felix Rosenqvist	SWE	Arrow McLaren SP	01:09.326
23	20	Conor Daly	USA	Ed Carpenter Racing	01:09.480
24	45	Santino Ferrucci	USA	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	01:09.917
25	4	Dalton Kellett	CAN	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	01:10.146
26	48	Jimmie Johnson (R)	USA	Chip Ganassi Racing	01:10.264